The American Red Cross has averted potential embarrassment and won plaudits for its honest handling of a Twitter faux pas.

In a lesson to clumsier corporate social media users, the Red Cross acted surefootedly after a member of staff using Hootsuite accidentally tweeted a personal message from the official @RedCross account: “Ryan found two more bottles of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch Beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd”

Immediately deleting the message, @RedCross followed up with an explanation: “We’ve deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys.”

Writing on redcrosschat.org, the organisation’s social media manager Wendy Harman said: “We realised our honest mistake (the Tweeter was not drunk) and deleted the Tweet. We all know that it’s impossible to really delete a tweet like this, so we acknowledged our mistake.

“In the meantime we found so many of you to be sympathetic and understanding. While we’re a 130-year-old humanitarian organisation, we’re also made of up human beings. Thanks for not only getting that but for turning our faux pas into something good.”

Dogfish Head Brewery took it upon itself to encourage its own followers to donate, while another Twitter user @ereed812 said: “After I drop a pint of blood to the @RedCross, I’m replacing it with a pint of @dogfishbeer #gettngslizzerd”